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  #31  
Old 02-09-2014, 01:16 PM
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George Prentice George Prentice is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Toccata View Post
For ages I was a member of the anti-Bose league without ever hearing any of their gear! Then, a few years ago, I happened into a Bose store in a mall and "for laughs" tried their AE-1 headphones...much to my surprise they sounded great and offered excellent isolation, and I bought them for my iPod. Later that year, my wife bought me a Bose Wave radio/CD player, which offers quite decent sound--perfect for the office or bedroom. Just this year she got me some Bose Companion 20 computer speakers, which also sound quite good. Is Bose gear truly hi-end? Of course not, but it does offer inherently "musical" sound for a decent price. RIP, Mr. Bose.
The Bose legacy for terrible sound goes back decades. And for the better part of that time it has been true. I have heard lots of 901's and have their owner parrot back the marketing hype word for word. In the last few years they have released a few products that sound pretty good. I think their noise canceling headphones were pretty well received. While the Wave sounds pretty good, the reviews I have read say it is significantly bested by other units. I have been into high end audio for forty years, and I can't tell you the number of times I reluctantly revealed that I was into high-end audio to hear the reply, " so am I, I have Bose". It is really difficult to gently try and tactfully suggest that maybe their system is't really in that category. Personally, I feel Bose has done high-end audio a tremendous disservice. I categorize the company along with snake oil companies. I guess you are taught as a child you should not believe advertising, or at least believe and verify. But to me Bose was the epitome of false advertising and did irreparable damage to legitimate companies trying to produce true high end products.
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  #32  
Old 02-09-2014, 02:04 PM
AudioGremlin AudioGremlin is offline
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Toccata, I'm not surprised you found the Bose headphones good. I'm not a fan of Bose products in the audiophile field but I'm certainly a fan of Bose aviation headsets that sits at the top of the pile with the likes of Lightspeed etc.
I also quite liked their PA speakers for speech work, at least they don't have the ear bleeding cheap high frequency drivers that some so called PA speakers are fitted with.
Funnily enough there is always a big demand on Ebay for their PA speakers.
I don't believe that Bose ever had the right stuff to properly enter & compete in the true audiophile field.
Mike
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  #33  
Old 02-09-2014, 03:32 PM
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RIP Big man and thanks for all you did to help the audio folks and bring great ideas to the market!
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  #34  
Old 04-17-2014, 08:49 PM
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A lot of the engineers that work at Bose are audiophiles themselves. Read that Bose ordered 5 Quad Electrostatics for one of their divisions. Which make sense when think about it, lately there products have gotten purer in the mids not so much in the highs. Just like a Quad Electrostat.
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  #35  
Old 04-17-2014, 10:05 PM
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Bose made a great looking power amp in the 200 watt league about 4 decades ago. Dr Bose had some interesting philosophy regarding the amp in terms of frequency response and distortion. As I recall from many years ago the high spec was about 16k hz and the lows like 30 hz. Distortion was rated somewhat high even for those days. Maybe 1 percent? Anyway, I thought it was a great looking piece of gear with big meters. There might have been a matching pre amp.
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  #36  
Old 04-18-2014, 12:33 AM
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Dr. Bose did do some outstanding hi-end work with the 801 speaker series. Also, I can still remember being amazed at the natural, clear sound the first time I heard a good bluegrass band play through an early Bose PA system powered by a huge 500 watts per channel Bose sound-reinforcement amp. RIP Amar Bose.

Last edited by Steady339; 04-18-2014 at 12:38 AM.
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  #37  
Old 12-22-2014, 04:38 PM
NZ421291 NZ421291 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JWJW View Post
Amar and Paul Klipsch are debating right now.
R.I.P. Amar.....
Old thread but couldn't resist this:

Paul Klipsch sees Amar Bose on the other side of the road- cups his hands around his mouth & yells- 'Hi Amar- everything ok with you?"

Amar Bose, cups his hands & puts them on the side of his cheek & reply's-'everything is just fine with me!'

Only an audiophile would get the joke.

Its very sad when audio pioneers like these two are no longer with us.
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  #38  
Old 12-22-2014, 04:42 PM
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GaryProtein GaryProtein is offline
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^^^^ That's hilarious!
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  #39  
Old 12-22-2014, 05:01 PM
Soundserge Soundserge is offline
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I don't have any personal Bose experiences, but I've always found this video of a prototype Bose active suspension amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw
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  #40  
Old 12-22-2014, 07:39 PM
SHV SHV is offline
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"I don't believe that Bose ever had the right stuff to properly enter & compete in the true audiophile field. "
****
A company built by it's marketing and legal departments. The Bose vs. Consumer Reports law suit and ad dollars really shut down valid mass market evaluation of Bose products. The general public considers Bose the "best" brand.

I haven looked at Bose products for years but I remember being in a Best Buy a few days before the Holidays about 10 years ago and a young couple with young children was looking longingly at a Bose system that cost ~$2000. I almost went up to them and told them "don't do it". After they left, I looked at it and it was a cheaply made POS, including spring speaker wire connectors that I hadn't seen since the '70s. The $500 consumer grade systems at BB were much better quality.

Steve
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